1. Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:
2. The virgin of Israel has fallen;She will rise no more.She lies forsaken on her land;There is no one to raise her up.
3. For thus says the Lord God:“The city that goes out by a thousandShall have a hundred left,And that which goes out by a hundredShall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
4. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:“Seek Me and live;
5. But do not seek Bethel,Nor enter Gilgal,Nor pass over to Beersheba;For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,And Bethel shall come to nothing.
6. Seek the Lord and live,Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph,And devour it,With no one to quench it in Bethel—
7. You who turn justice to wormwood,And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”